Friday, December 15, 2017

Let's Talk Cookies with Lynda Aicher!


Hello friends! Happy Holidays! I'm so excited to be part of the Harlequin Winter Holiday Traditions tour. If you haven't checked out the other blogs on this tour, trust me you must. They are all fabulously festive.

Way back in 2012, I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Lynda Aicher at the RWA Literacy Signing. By brief, I'm mean blink and you missed it. Lynda's next book, After Hours, comes out next month and I can't wait! If it is as hot as the prequel novella, ereaders everywhere will ignite from the sexiness.

And I just went wildly off topic...

Grab a seat and let's listen to Lynda chat about her family tradition of making cookies...


Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!


For as long as I can remember, baking and decorating Christmas cookies has been a fundamental part of our holiday season. Growing up, cookie baking night was a big deal, one I looked forward to every year. The freshly baked cookies were the main draw, but I also loved the family time.

My grandparents would come over, and the kitchen would be organized into rolling, cutting, baking, cooling and decorating stations. Everyone had their job, and the house would smell of cinnamon and nutmeg from my mom’s Christmas cookies or the date mixture from my grandma’s date pinwheel cookies. On that night, a minimum of three different kinds of cookies were finished amongst many laughs, a few tears and so much fun.

The decorating process always started with the immaculate intent of creating the most beautiful cookie with multiple frosting colors and perfect decorations. A good three hours and dozens of cookies later, the decorating diminished to a swipe of frosting and a splash of sprinkles.

I still remember the heaping frosting-covered cookie my grandpa would make just for me, always topped with a Red Hot. I never told him how it made me sick when I tried to eat it. (That’s when I learned that too much frosting wasn’t such a good thing.)

We live thousands of miles from my extended family now, but I still carry on the cookie tradition. I inherited my grandmother’s Christmas cookie cutters and smile every year when I use them. I have pictures and memories of my kids “helping” with the mixing, cutting and decorating process since they could stand on a stool next to me. Now they’re old enough to do most of it by themselves. Yes, that brings a tear to my eye.

For me, the holidays are about memories, both making new ones and remembering old ones. I hope you have a few good ones to think back on and are creating new ones every year. Below is my mother’s recipe for Christmas cookies. I love the hint of nutmeg and cinnamon in them.

Do you have a favorite holiday memory or recipe?


Mom’s Christmas Cookies
(makes a double batch)
  • 1 lb. Butter
  • 2 C. white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp. baking power 6 C. flour
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 4 tsp. cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Slowly add to wet ingredients until all is blended.

Chill until dough is firm. Preheat oven to 375°. Remove a portion of dough from fridge. Roll out on well-floured surface and cut out cookie shapes. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges start to brown.


After Hours
Series: The Boardroom #1
Author: Lynda Aicher
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: January 22, 2018

Buy Links: Amazon - Barnes & Noble
Add to Goodreads

The Boardroom. After hours, it’s where Bay Area moguls indulge their fantasies. Ties are loosened. Inhibitions, too.

Assistant Avery Fast watched from a distance, mouth gaping, blood roaring wildly in her ears as she stared at the naked woman on the table before her. At executive Carson Taggert ordering a man to pleasure her. It made her feel guilty, embarrassed…and hot.

Carson watched and waited. Waited for Avery to notice him in the Boardroom. Waited for her to like what she saw. Waited to see what she’d do the next day. And the next. He couldn't let her go—not when she'd seen what goes on in the Boardroom. He couldn't stop thinking about the desire in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks, her obvious arousal.

Getting her to join was easy. But now Carson wants Avery all to himself.



Lynda Aicher is a RWA RITA award finalist and RT Reviewers’ Choice award winner who loves to write emotionally charged erotic romance. After years spent traveling weekly as a consultant implementing software into global companies, she opted to end her nomadic lifestyle to raise her two children. Now her imagination is her only limitation on where she can go, and her writing lets her escape from the daily duties of being a mom, wife, chauffeur, scheduler, cook, teacher, cleaner and mediator. If writing wasn't a priority, it wouldn't get done.


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your family recipe! I LOVE Christmas cookies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for hosting me today! I hope everyone has a great holiday!

    ReplyDelete